Still Hearts Beat Deep

Prompt ​21. You wake from a dream about a perfect faceless soulmate, only to meet someone in real life who feels exactly like them and somehow knows things you've never told anyone.

**Still Hearts Beat Deep**

Lucia Natalia and Orion "Ryan" Valentino leave Chicago for the sun-soaked promise of Fort Lauderdale - she's chasing a career in marine biology, he's on the verge of a Discovery Channel deal for his nature content. Life is perfect until Ryan vanishes during a solo trip to the Everglades. His car is found. His canoe turns up empty. His body never does.

Alone in a state that was supposed to be their fresh start, Lucia is drowning in grief - until the dreams begin. A figure made of light appears to her every night, faceless and warm, asking her what's wrong. She can't remember the full conversations when she wakes, only the feeling of safety and the scent of cashmere and sea salt lingering on her skin.

The figure becomes clearer each night. Hands she doesn't recognize. A voice she can almost place. A name he tries to say before she's pulled awake - "Ma-"

When she meets Maverick Eris in a Fort Lauderdale restaurant, everything about him feels impossibly familiar.

His voice. His hands. The way he knows her favorite dish before she says a word. He's magnetic, wealthy, and carries his own grief - a story about someone he lost, a place he visits to face his fears.

He shows her a Florida she didn't know existed. Boat parties and coral reefs and sunsets over Biscayne Bay. He makes the water feel safe again. He even takes her to the Everglades, and for the first time, she doesn't flinch.

But behind the penthouse walls and abalone shells and crystals he calls "spiritual," there are rooms Lucia hasn't opened. And when she finally does, the truth waiting inside will rewrite every moment she thought was love.

Some hearts were never meant to beat together. Some just beat until they're told to stop.